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BAGHDAD -- The top U.S. commander for Baghdad says Iraq's prolonged
political crisis has encouraged a spike in violence and pushed frustrated
citizens to begin holding back crucial tips on suspected insurgents.

Would be good have a little more detail on who is carrying them out and
who they are targetting. Is it really a sunni-on-shia assassination
campaign confined to within INIS?

The next question is why is this happening? Kamran and I had a
discussion about it that narrowed down to this--the Sunnis have become
so weakened within the Iraqi security services that this is one last
desperate move to limit Iranian influence. As K has said, control of
the security services is very important for the battle of influence over
the Iraqi gov't between the US, Iran and other players. Before, the
Sunnis had a pretty secure place in control of INIS, and the
organization was even described as non-sectarian in the beginning. And
even when the Ministry of National Security turned into an intelligence
service, INIS still was a bulwark. But after Shahwani was fired they
seem to have lost that foothold. Are these assassinations then last
moves?
Fred Burton wrote:

I can ask Bob for more details if helpful? He's doing a book on
assassinations, provided he's not behind these...

Sean Noonan wrote:

Good to get confirmation from another source. I have pieced together
a pretty good background of the Iraqi intelligence structure since 03,
and have a good handful of the recent assassinations catalogued, but
the latter is not comprehensive.

The other thing that we didn't talk about when looking at this article
before was the assassinations from the opposite direction--hundreds of
INIS officers taken out by Iran IO's or their agents between 2004 and
07-ish.

Kamran alerted me to an article about this in UAE's the National
yesterday. Here is Intelligence News' summary today, with the full
article after. We've picked up on a lot of these killings--sticky
bombs, suppressors-- targetting INIS officers. And I think generally
attributed them to ISI or other militants. Instead, this /could/ be a
Sunni response from within INIS to the gradual Shia takeover. It's
very important within the general competition over control of Iraqi
intelligence services. There was already a major issue in 06 or 07
when the Ministry of National Security (MNS) came to prominence as
Maliki's Shia/Iran-contolled intel service and was competing with
INIS. The CIA-trained head of INIS, Gen. Mohammed Shahwani (who was
involved in previous coups against Hussein, and did intel gathering
for CIA 02/03), was replaced fairly recently.

This is something that might be worth looking into more.

Analysis: Deadly conflict inside Iraqi spy service goes unmentioned
Posted on September 23, 2010 by intelNews| Leave a comment
http://intelligencenews.wordpress.com/2010/09/23/01-568/
By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org <http://intelNews.org> |
Amidst the chaos of post-Ba'athist Iraqi politics, a deadly sectarian
conflict is raging within Iraq's powerful spy agency. Employees inside
Iraq's National Intelligence Service (INIS) are split along religious
sectarian lines, with Sunni and Shiite officers battling for control
of the organization. The warring factions are directly affiliated with
opposing political parties, and represent various political interests.
Shiite officers are seen as aligned with Tehran, whereas Sunnis are
close to Washington and -ironically- to the remnants of Saddam
Hussein's Ba'ath party. The conflict has resulted in the assassination
of several INIS officers, mostly by their colleagues in the Service,
according to two anonymous Iraqi security officials, who spoke to The
National, an English-language newspaper published in the United Arab
Emirates. One of them, a brigadier-general with recent experience in
intelligence work in Baghdad, told the paper that Shiite INIS officers
are beeing killed by professionally trained assassins using "plastic
explosives, sticky bombs and silenced pistols". These killings, said
the brigadier-general, are conveniently reported as random terrorist
attacks against Iraqi government employees. Another intelligence
source told The National that the killings are targeted and involve
the use of inside information, including pen-register data of cell
phones belonging to spies targeted for assassination. He added that
the assassins are former members of Saddam Hussein's Mukhabarat (Iraqi
Intelligence Service), who have been rehired and trained by American
forces in recent years, in an effort to curtail Shiite influence
inside Iraq. Iraqi government representatives refused to discuss the
newspaper's revelations. Meanwhile in Washington, a CIA representative
described the allegations about a civil war within the INIS as
"absolute rubbish".
*
Iraqi intelligence services accused of targeted killings*
Phil Sands, Foreign Correspondent
o Last Updated: September 21. 2010 10:33PM UAE / September 21. 2010
6:33PM GMT

Damascus // A secret conflict is underway inside Iraq's intelligence
services, with officers being assassinated by fellow agents as rival
factions battle for control, according to Iraqi security officials.

The conflict, as described by both a senior Iraqi intelligence officer
and a high-ranking former Iraqi security official, is largely along
sectarian lines dividing Shiite and Sunni agents affiliated with
different political parties.

"Shiite officers are being assassinated by an organisation inside the
intelligence service," an Iraqi brigadier general who, until recently,
was working in intelligence operations in Baghdad, said in an
interview. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he is worried
about his safety and he is not authorised to talk to the media.

"We think the killers are from Saddam Hussein's secret police who have
been rehired to work for intelligence again," he said. "They have
classified information about other officers' movements and activities
that they are using to kill them."

Such information, he said, could only come "from inside the Iraqi
intelligence system, or from the Americans".

It is impossible to independently confirm any of the information or
allegations made by the Iraqi officers.

A CIA spokeswoman dismissed as "absolute rubbish" any suggestions that
the US foreign intelligence agency might be involved. The Iraqi
National Intelligence Service (INIS) routinely refuses to comment on
intelligence matters.

The general said security agents and officers were being murdered in
attacks that were reported as random bombings or shootings but were,
in fact, skilfully targeted assassinations.

"My colleagues are being killed and the official reports say they were
`terrorist incidents', but there is never a full investigation into
what happened," he said. "They are being killed with plastic
explosives, sticky bombs and silenced pistols."

He said he personally knew of six officers from different intelligence
departments who had been killed in recent months, he said, adding that
he was certain others had been killed, too. He provided no details nor
specific verifiable cases in which agents had been assassinated.

The general, a Shiite affiliated with the Islamic Supreme Council of
Iraq political party, said he and other officers had received modern
tactical instruction from the US intelligence services and that groups
would need similar operational know-how to find and kill them. "Only
those with the same professional US training as us would be able to
carry out these killings," he said. "We are very careful; we vary our
routes, our movements and our vehicles but officers are still being
killed.

"I believe we are being killed by insiders or with help from insiders,
and so do my colleagues."

The claims were supported by a senior serving Iraqi intelligence
official who, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said he had
survived an assassination attempt that he believed to be an inside job.

"I don't trust my colleagues anymore," he said.

He is convinced the assassins were using sophisticated mobile-phone
tracking systems to precisely locate the signals of individual
handsets being used by their targets.

"We all have mobile phones and the details are logged with the office
and they track that," he said. "I now use a phone that is unregistered
and I don't let many people know the number."

The security officer said former secret police operatives from
Saddam's regime had been recruited to the intelligence services and
were involved in the assassinations.

He also said a classified, written report on the issue had been sent
to senior government officials a month ago. "Nothing has been done
about it," he said.

The general and the serving intelligence officer admitted they had no
proof about who was behind the attacks but both were adamant the
killers were highly trained and had access to inside information.

They also both pointedly underlined the central role of US
intelligence agencies in Iraq, noting that the United States has been
instrumental in building, funding and working alongside the INIS,
since its creation in 2004.

"There are reasons to suspect the Americans could cooperate in this,"
the serving intelligence officer said.

Shamel al Bassam, an independent political analyst from Baghdad, said
the murder of agents had convinced him a "huge fight" was underway
within the INIS - long considered a highly politicised agency -
pitting elements close to Tehran against those siding with Washington.

"Intelligence officers are being killed by other intelligence
officers," he said. "Those being targeted are seen as working for
Iran. They are political appointees put in by the parties."

Many of the pro-Washington agents had served under Saddam Hussein's
secret police networks, Mr al Bassam claimed, and were vehemently
anti-Iranian. Government officials loyal to Shiite parties, such as
the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, are often accused of being under
Iranian control by their opponents.